Echovirus In Chiang Mai?

[roadschooler]

I just read that a Thai doctor informed the young women's family in New Zealand that their daughter died from an echovirus. It's suspected that the others died from the same causes. I never heard about this before and I wonder if I should be alarmed especially when I have 3 young children. Here are the causes of an echovirus.

Main causes of infection are from overcrowded conditions such as the poor districts of a city and poor hygiene. Echoviruses are transmitted person-to-person; the fecal-oral route is the predominant mode, although transmission sometimes occurs via respiration of oral secretions such as saliva. Indirect transmission occurs through numerous routes, including via contaminated water, food, and fomites (inanimate objects). Contaminated swimming and wading pools can also transmit the virus. Also, there are well-documented reports of transmission via the contaminated hands of hospital personnel.

Of course, we will do hand washing with anti-bactrial soap. I guess the food preparation when you go out to eat can be a concern along with the water supply. I don't want to live in fear but on the other hand I do want to exercise common sense and take precautions or limit our risk to exposure. Has this happened before? Is this rare? Should we be concerned?

Thanks

[Donnyboy]

of all the theories I have read in the media and forums on this issue, this one would be the most believable.

Did the thai doctor do the post-mortem?

Echovirus disease occurs disproportionately in males and children. Infection within the first two weeks of birth can cause devastating and potentially fatal disease. In this population, death usually results from overwhelming liver failure or myocarditis, rather than infection of the central nervous system. Older children and adults have a better prognosis. Myocarditis is the most frequent complication in adults.

myocarditis

In medicine (cardiology), myocarditis is inflammation of heart muscle (myocardium). It resembles a heart attack but coronary arteries are not blocked.

Myocarditis is most often due to infection by common viruses, such as parvovirus B19, less commonly non-viral pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease) or Trypanosoma cruzi, or as a hypersensitivity response to drugs.^[1]

The definition of myocarditis varies, but the central feature is an infection of the heart, with an inflammatory infiltrate, and damage to the heart muscle, without the blockage of coronary arteries that define a heart attack (myocardial infarction) or other common non-infectious causes.^[2] Myocarditis may or may not include death (necrosis) of heart tissue. It may include dilated cardiomyopathy.^[1]

Myocarditis is often an autoimmune reaction. Streptococcal M protein and coxsackievirus B have regions (epitopes) that are immunologically similar to cardiac myosin. After the virus is gone, the immune system may attack cardiac myosin.^[1]

Because a definitive diagnosis requires a heart biopsy, which doctors are reluctant to do because they are invasive, statistics on the incidence of myocarditis vary widely.^[1]

The consequences of myocarditis thus also vary widely. It can cause a mild disease without any symptoms that resolves itself, or it may cause chest pain, heart failure, or sudden death. An acute myocardial infarction-like syndrome with normal coronary arteries has a good prognosis. Heart failure, even with dilated left ventricle, may have a good prognosis. Ventricular arrhythmias and high-degree heart block have a poor prognosis. Loss of right ventricular function is a strong predictor of death.

Wiki

also

NZ Herald

Edited March 12, 2011 by Donnyboy